Today, I am so very thankful for a manager who has not only helped me once, several years ago, but did so once again.

Back in 2009, I was a supervisor of a team where I was the youngest member (the oldest team member had started working for the company the year I was born). It was not easy.

I wanted to have the best team. While I had my own work and my supervising duties, I picked up the slack for a couple of team members who just didn’t want to do their share. There was also a lot of work, and we did not have enough people to do them.

I followed the hierarchy to get help for my team, but also to help with issues our region was experiencing, but nothing happened… so overworked, super burned out, and fed up with crazy work politics in a large corporation… I decided to quit.

Manager D, who was sent to investigate the issues happening in our region, during my interview with him, told me not to quit. He advised instead that I take a personal leave, and when I come back, there would be a job waiting for me. So I stepped down as a Supervisor and went on leave (and traveled alone in Asia). While I was on leave, Manager D was asked to absorb our region so he could fix the issues. When I came back, there was indeed a job for me.

Manager D would continue to have one-to-one meetings with me over the next few years. Last year, he sensed my growing unhappiness; although, I never mentioned anything to him. I didn’t want to bother him. I was grateful to him, and he had already helped me so much. Well, to cut this shorter, he gave me another job in a new team under his umbrella, because he realized why I was unhappy.

This new team is awesome. My Supervisor, L, is so warm and nurturing. I was given a mentor, S, at work and she is so very helpful. I had started on Monday.

Unbeknownst to me, my Supervisor and her peers, their manager (and mine), B, and B‘s Manager D, had a meeting early this morning. My new manager, B, had sent me an IM this morning letting me know that he heard I was doing fantastic work and thanked me. I said my thanks and my appreciation, but wondered about it.

It so happened that I had a one-to-one meeting with Manager D later this morning, and he told me how he heard (in a meeting I mentioned earlier) that I was doing great in my new team with other details from Supervisor L, and he said he knew that “would happen.” It was something he mentioned before during our last one-to-one meeting when we spoke about the transfer, but I forgot until today when he reminded me.

Manager D gave me a wonderful blessing—a new environment where I could grow and flourish again. I am so grateful for a manager like that.

So even if Corporate America has a bunch of issues and politics, I am grateful that Manager D is a manager who always put people and their well-being first. He is truly a first-rate manager.

I had a yummy, Vietnamese dinner with some of my closest friends to celebrate my birthday. I had a drink called a “Hanoi Hottie,” which was super spicy from muddled jalapēnos. The fried catfish and the bouncing beef were the best.

R gave each of us a button purchased from the cupcake shop to represent us. The bottom two were for me. S had brought this cute, mini pedestal for the cupcake. How cute!

Cupcakes from “Love At First Bite” cupcake shop for dessert.

I chose this one because of the design. The little balls were malt balls, to my surprise, atop a chocolate cupcake with butter cream icing. I believe this was the best one according to taste and design. We cut it into quarters to taste. That would have been enough for me, but they kept cutting more cupcakes–for a total of 6! Oh, the sugar overload! I was not used to all the sugar!

I am grateful to R, S, and G for the gift of their friendship, this celebratory dinner, and the gift to “Kitchen On Fire”– to help me expand my culinary knowledge and skills! Thank you!